PageUp CEO Insights on the Millennial Workforce and Technology from CUHK Business School Luncheon

PageUp > Blog > PageUp CEO Insights on the Millennial Workforce and Technology from CUHK Business School Luncheon

Posted on 08 Feb 2016

PageUp CEO Karen Cariss was recently invited to deliver the keynote speech at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business Luncheon in Singapore for MBA students and 50 HR professionals from companies including DHL, American Express, Santoz, and Ericsson.

Here is a quick wrap up of what was covered…

Karen took the stage to deliver the keynote address, highlighting how Singapore can create a productive and engaged workforce that fuels growth. She also revealed how games, technology and mobile apps can be used to engage millennials; build pipelines of ready candidates; accelerate learning and development; and improve productivity cost-effectively and efficiently.

How is technology changing?

We have entered the era of what is known as the “third platform” in corporate computing. While the first platform was the mainframe computer system, and the second platform was the client/server system, the third is defined as the as the inter-dependencies between social media, mobile computing, analytics (or big data) and cloud technologies – collectively known as SMAC. Gartner claims these interdependent trends are “transforming the way people and businesses relate to technology”.

With the growing deployment of unified talent management solutions worldwide, HR has now emerged to be one of the pioneering functions in leveraging SMAC trends.

How is the workforce changing?

By 2020 up to 50% the workforce will be made of Millennials, and their needs are very different from Gen Y and Gen X. Millennials are the least engaged generation, according to Gallup, with only 28.9% engaged as compared to 32.9% for Gen X & Boomers.

Digital natives at heart – looking at their phones at least 150 times a day – they expect convenience of anytime anywhere contact, and continuous openness and accessibility to management and their team. They demand transparency, and love sharing and gaming. The need for speed for change means utilising mediums and technology that are native to them. In the workplace this means they want access to immediate information, micro-content and micro-learning at all times. You need to find ways to engage them in the way they are used to be engaged.

So how can you utilise these new technological trends to make your workplace more productive for the workforce of the present and future?

From these two trends, It stands to reason that you should be looking to make significant advances in the area of SMAC-enabled mobile recruitment and engagement if you wish to reach the generation that is going to carry the company torch into the next several decades.

Mobile recruiting is already fast becoming the ‘new normal’. As mobile device sales surpass PC sales, the business world has no choice but to respond by creating easier mobile recruitment processes. 80% of Southeast Asian companies have job search functionality and encouragingly 78% provide an experience that is mobile-optimised*.

However, recruitment systems are only one part of the overall talent management equation. From an employee engagement perspective, you still need to mobile-optimise your SMAC-enabled talent management system to empower your millennial workforce get trained (via micro-training functions), share engaging content with colleagues and peers, as well as to search for internal placement opportunities (known as micro experiences) in which they can expand their knowledge and skills – all within the technology and platform they prefer. In fact, PricewaterhouseCooper’s Digital IQ Top Performers cite continued or increased investment in mobile apps for employees (34%); virtual meeting and collaboration technologies (29%); and social media for internal collaboration.

Moving forward, engaging your future leaders to help them fast track their development opportunities and remain connected and highly productive, will help your business remain competitive in this fast-paced, SMAC-enabled new world.